


The Art of Being Yourself

by justwhatialwayswanted



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, a bunch of people get mentioned, adrien and chloe are childhood friends, adrien is attached to his phone, adrien isn't a professional interrogator, ah yes how to write a chloe, and their kids are boreddddd, andre bourgeois and gabriel agreste have a dinner party, chloe is jealous, like a bunch, semi-implied adrienette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 05:24:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6039907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justwhatialwayswanted/pseuds/justwhatialwayswanted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien’s been ignoring Chloe for practically forever at this dumb dinner party. When he finally does say something, it’s not at all the apology she expects.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Art of Being Yourself

Chloe’s only just ended a phone call with Sabrina when Adrien  _ finally _ speaks to her.

He’s been ignoring her for this  _ entire _ dinner party, even once they were kicked out of the room so their parents could discuss business.

Frankly, she was expecting him not to talk to her the entire time.

“Why?” he asks, not looking up from his phone. He’s probably texting Nino, something he seems to be doing more and more when he’s with her.

“Why what?”

“Why are you so cruel to Sabrina?”

Chloe blinks. Out of all the things she expected him to say, inquiring about her best friend was not one of them. “What do you mean?” Is he going to try and pull a Marinette, blaming Chloe for everything? She honestly gets enough of that at school.

“You know what I mean.” 

Chloe waits for Adrien to elaborate with raised eyebrows. He sighs and continues. 

“Telling her to finish the entire project by herself or find a new friend?”

Chloe starts to tell him about her and Sabrina’s schoolwork arrangement, but Adrien interrupts her. “You’re so needlessly cruel to her all the time, Chloe. And it’s not just her, you do it to everyone else too. Like Marinette, and Kim, and Mylene, and Nathanael, and Alix, and  _ everyone. _ So why?”

Chloe rolls her eyes. “Wow, Adrien, when did  _ you _ turn into such a bleeding heart?”

He goes back to his phone. She didn’t realize he stopped texting. “All I'm saying is that when I started school, I didn’t expect you to be so different from how I remembered.”

“What did you  _ expect?” _ Chloe mutters, frustrated at not having something better to say. “Did you think I would be like  _ Marinette, _ giving people presents on their birthdays and sharing her notes when people miss class and spending an entire month carrying Alix’s stuff for her when she broke her arm? I’m sorry we can’t all be Miss Class President. God.”

Adrien waits for her to finish, then once it’s clear she’s done, he says, “You know what I mean. I actually wanted to be your friend when we were little. You’re different.”

“Maybe  _ you’re _ the different one,” she says. Chloe still can’t find a retort that suits her. Why is Adrien so determined to interrogate her?

“Maybe so, but I don’t need to bribe my only friend to stay friends with me, and I can’t think you’re actually  _ happier _ like that.”

“Yeah, but you’re  _ Adrien,” _ Chloe bursts out. “People practically love you on sight. you’re always nice and your face is plastered all over Paris and you’re practically a genius. Me? What have I got? I’m not  _ nice _ or  _ thoughtful. _ I don’t have any skills, or even a hobby really, just something that can be my  _ thing. _ You know. Alya’s got her blog. Alix has her skates. Nino’s got his music.” Chloe scowls. “And of course, Marinette’s got  _ tons _ of things. She can bake, she can sew, she’s always nice.”

“You hate Marinette.”

“Well, yeah. She already had all that, why did she need to go and take class president too? I thought that could be my  _ thing. _ I thought you guys thought that too. And Marinette doesn’t like  _ me, _ anyway. You saw when she tried to convince Sabrina to abandon me. And it almost worked. So of course I resorted to bribing Sabrina, because what else could I do? What do I have that Marinette doesn’t? I have money and my dad. Those are the only things I can use. And it’s not like nobody caves in, too. I’d like to see what  _ you _ would do in my situation.”

“Maybe I would try to be nice to people, even if it wasn’t my first instinct,” Adrien says calmly. “You made yourself the victim here, Chloe. Maybe you should think about your choices before your one friend  _ does _ leave.”

Signaling that he’s really done, Adrien proceeds to actually call someone on his phone, instead of just texting like he was doing before.

Even though Chloe should be offended he’s turning his back on her when there’s no one else to talk to, she’s grateful he’s giving her some space to think.

He  _ could _ be kind of right. The whole Invisible Girl thing did kind of drive it home that Chloe needs to be nicer to her best friend.

And it isn’t all  _ that _ fun to have her akumatized classmates constantly coming after her.

The person Adrien is calling picks up and greets him. He replies with a cheery, “Hey, Mari!”

Of  _ course. _ The only person he could  _ possibly  _ be calling who he would call Mari is Marinette.

Chloe grits her teeth as she listens to Adrien make plans to meet up with Marinette the next day. That settles it. She might have other reasons to change a few things, but she is  _ not _ going to let Marinette Dupain-Cheng just replace her like that.


End file.
